If you’ve read the Congo Diaries of Che Guevara, you realize soldiers haven’t really changed. If they managed to discourage the revolutionary leader, they still manage to annoy most Congolese.

I’ve met good and bad soldiers in DR Congo. I’ve drank beer with some, shared thoughts with others, I even spent new year’s eve with better ones. I can both admire and despise the men in uniform.

A soldier in Congo is basically anyone who has fatigues and a gun. Like anyone with a camera can claim to be a photographer.

So there, you have a gun, you’re a soldier. Your boss (who drives a nice 4×4) takes a cut of your salary. That is, if you get a salary. In better days, you get twenty bucks a month.

They give you no food. You’re hungry, so you go see farmers and others. You’re gun is a good argument for them to share the little they have.

In fact, the gun is the reason you enrolled. It gives you power you otherwise could never get. So you develop the attitude of importance. Everyone else is shit and thank God you’re not doing all the physical labor other people do.

Your routine is to keep guard of a road, a building or important people. The army is for hire: if you need security, you can call on them. But much of the task is boring.

Then there’s trouble. You hear a few bullets, and you make a run for your life. It’s not worth 20 bucks to stick around. Tomorrow is another day, and you wanna be there to see it!

Everyone ran away like you. Chaos reigns. The bullets are far away now. There’s no more authority. Pillage time. Rape if you can. This is your chance, make the best of it.

Article and Pictures by Kim Gjerstad.

kim.uing.net/1537/home.html?b_st=45&b_d=&b_cd=20070418&b_m=0&b_u=0&b_pi=8570&b_k=0&b_s=&b_o=DESC